incorporeal undead disrupt undead question

[Jeff Clem]

Does disrupt undead spell effect incorporeal undead fully or is it 1/2 damage due to incorporeal undead traits?

[Nothing]

If the caster is on the material plane it does 1/2 damage (min 1), because it is spell damage that is not also force damage.

If the caster is on the ethereal plane it will do full damage.

[WinterwolfNW]

It is Positive Energy like channeling, it should do FULL damage anywhere! Magic Missiles do full damage anywhere.

However it is a good question and should be answered by a Paizo rule committee member.

[Dafydd]

it is a shot of positive energy, so unless incorporeal gives a resistance to positive energy, it will be full damage.

[Rikkan]

prd wrote:

Incorporeal (Ex) An incorporeal creature has no physical body. It can be harmed only by other incorporeal creatures, magic weapons or creatures that strike as magic weapons, and spells, spell-like abilities, or supernatural abilities. It is immune to all nonmagical attack forms. Even when hit by spells or magic weapons, it takes only half damage from a corporeal source. Although it is not a magical attack, holy water affects incorporeal undead. Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature (except for channel energy). Force spells and effects, such as from a magic missile, affect an incorporeal creature normally.

disrupt undead wrote:

You direct a ray of positive energy. You must make a ranged touch attack to hit, and if the ray hits an undead creature, it deals 1d6 points of damage to it.

Spells from a corporeal source do half damage unless they are force effects or channel energy. Since disrupt undead is neither a force effect nor channel energy, it'll do half damage.

[Starglim]

This is interesting:

Quote:

Corporeal spells and effects that do not cause damage only have a 50% chance of affecting an incorporeal creature (except for channel energy).

Channel energy in Pathfinder does cause damage, so I think this is outdated but shows a clear past intention that channel energy should take full effect on incorporeal undead. Marked the original question for FAQ

[WinterwolfNW]

Good idea marking it for FAQ. It is a wimpy spell but it is often all low level arcane casters have against undead, so it is important to them.

Until I hear otherwise I'm going to continue to allow it to do full damage against incorporeal undead for my players.